Special Projects

Andrew Bois, manager of Knuckleheads bar restaurant, credits much of New Bedford’s thriving economy to the success of the commercial fishing industry. “It’s helped this city, because we have restaurants like ours, gear places, netting places and clothing stores that all the fishermen go to,” Bois said. “It all helps support the economy.” New Bedford […]

Growing up in Gloucester, one of Massachusetts’ biggest fishing towns, Kellen O’Maley was surrounded by fishing.  His father, a school guidance counselor, and part-time fisherman, took Kellen fishing in the summers.  In early adulthood, O’Maley went on to college for a business marketing degree in Utah. After college, he came back to Boston to work. […]

While very few fishermen will admit to being superstitious, fishing culture in New Bedford is rife with superstitions and rituals.  Women are not allowed on a boat before it leaves on a trip, according to Chris Wright. If women do come aboard, they are supposed to pee on the deck to get rid of the […]

GLOUCESTER, Massachusetts — “Some of my parents’ friends ask me when I’m gonna get a real job, but fishing makes me happy and I’m making more money than all of the people asking me when I’m getting a “real” job. “I love being free on the water and the ability to be my own boss.” […]

Lars-Erik Miller sits at the corner of the Crow’s Nest Bar in Gloucester, Massachusetts, made famous by the Hollywood film The Perfect Storm. Based on a true story, the movie depicts the fishing crew of the Andrea Gail meeting a ferocious and fatal storm in October of 1991. A memorial banner hangs on the wall for all […]

The waterfront of New Bedford is lined with piers, boats arranged in the harbor like a game of Tetris and warehouses made of pale metal siding. A faint breeze stirs up the scent of fresh fish. It is evident the fishing industry has claimed its territory.  However, that claim is now being challenged. New Bedford, […]

NEW BEDFORD, Massachusetts — One might say that the fishing industry got its hooks in Tyler Miranda at a young age. Born into a family of fishermen, Miranda grew up on the water, going out on trips in his father’s lobster boat—a wooden vessel about 14 feet long and half-covered in ocean-worn lobster traps—since he […]

As New Bedford began to rely more and more on the fishing industry as its dominant economic force, other parts of life began to follow. As the saying goes “life imitates art.” While in this case, it may be that art imitates life, fishing, and art have always been intertwined. Between shifts on a fishing […]

As a 4th generation fisherman and starting his fishing career at 15 during the summers with his father, Chris Wright would work on the fishing boats while on break from school. Eventually going to college, Wright kept the tradition of fishing in the summers to support himself.  Wright now runs three fishing boats, one of […]

GLOUCESTER, Massachusetts — Lars-Erik Miller grew up right down the street from this harbor, where he started off fishing bass with his father.  And as his boat swayed on the water of the North Atlantic in the early April wind, he reflected on the culture this spot embeds him in; the worlds of fishing and […]

New Bedford, Massachusetts was first settled in 1652, but up through the 17th century, New Bedford (and its surrounding area) was home to the Wampanoag Native Americans. English colonists bought the land from the Wampanoag people and the settlement became a city, founded by Quakers. According to the New Bedford Historical Society, New Bedford itself […]